Airtel’s share price posted gains of 10% in July, becoming one of the best-performing stocks of the trading month following positive investors’ sentiment.
Positive sentiment witnessed on shares of the telecom firm during the month of July has resulted in investors of the company gaining about N651 billion at the close of trading on July 29th.
Airtel Africa began the year with a share price of N955.00 and has since gained 99.5% on that price valuation, ranking ninth on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX ) in terms of year-to-date performance.
The market sentiment for the segment which comprises two telecom firms – MTN Nigeria Plc and Airtel Africa Plc has remained resilient in the face of the pandemic.
Checks by SKYTREND NEWS showed Airtel closed its last trading day (Monday, July 29, 2022) at N1,905.40 per share and N7.160 trillion in market capitalisation on the NGX as against N1,732 per share and N6.509 trillion in market capitalisation at the beginning of trading in July 2022, hence it has made a gain of N651 billion or 10 % month to date.
Airtel Shareholders Earn N651 Billion On NGX Fuelled By Positive Sentiment In July
Telecom companies are currently taking advantage of remote working which most companies have adopted following the COVID-19 pandemic to rake in gains from data subscriptions and voice calls.
Many workers are leveraging the Internet for online education, teleworking, gaming and entertainment and there has been a rise in Internet traffic recorded by the Internet exchange point.
Internet traffic had increased as many companies introduced a work-from-home policy a week before the government-imposed lockdown.
Financial analysts at CardinalStone Partners Limited have said that unstoppable trends of remote work powered by the telecoms have continued to reshape the world around us.
The analysts in their 2022 Mid-Year Outlook themed: ‘Same Challenges, New Shocks’ said: “We see a compelling case for portfolio exposure to the data-inspired telecoms stocks, that has posted an average earnings growth of 42.8% YoY over the last eight quarters.
Over this period, internet and mobile services continue to inspire change in communication patterns among citizens and businesses. It has also led to innovations in payment systems, pioneered by existing and new FinTechs and telecoms operators.
In our view, Nigeria’s demographic characteristics (i.e high proportion of youthful population) is likely to continue to drive increase in the adoption rate of data-enabled devices and digital offerings”.